Many companies know the term “marketing automation”. But what, exactly, is it? 

In short, marketing automation is this: the digital tools that make marketing simpler and more effective. 

At a broader level, marketing automation refers to the software that makes every part of a marketing campaign – such as emails, social media, blog posts, web pages and more –easier, more effective and less time-consuming to produce. In other words, marketing automation software lets companies easily create strategic, creative campaigns that get real results. 

The role of customer centricity 

In business today, customer expectations are higher than ever. Buyers expect consistent, one-on-one cross-channel journeys and a connected, cohesive customer experience. One of the main purposes of marketing automation is to help companies get this right with every customer, every time. In other words, by delivering the right content, at the right time, to the right people. 

Does your company need marketing automation? 

Industry leaders in nearly every vertical use marketing automation to help drive their businesses forward, connect with their customers, and boost brand loyalty. But does every business need it? Here are some of the benefits:  

• Improved productivity. Marketing automation means your marketing team no longer needs to perform repetitive, mundane tasks. Instead, they can spend more of their time coming up with strategies to move your business forward creatively. 
• Personalisation. At the click of a button, you can create a tailored and unique experience for every customer, whether you speak to hundreds, thousands or even tens of thousands of people. With automatic data ingestion from every area of your business, you can enable comprehensive insights into each customer automatically, and speak clearly to their specific wants and needs. 
• Simplified multi-channel management. Marketing automation helps you keep track of every campaign and every marketing channel from one single hub. 
• A consistent experience. Marketing automation helps unify all your marketing campaigns, so you can ensure that every customer receives a consistent, on-brand experience.  
• Better ROI. By targeting customers more effectively, your marketing spend has the potential to yield greater results for every rand spent. 

Should you give marketing automation a try? 

Here’s a quick set of questions to answer about your business.  

• Can you take a list of customers and easily assess their fit and likelihood to buy? 
• Can you identify, track and engage individual buyers online? 
• Are you able to comb through sales leads based on interest and engagement? 
• Can you measure the specific revenue contribution of every marketing campaign you run?

If the answer to any of these questions is no – or you find your marketing teams spending excess time getting the answers to these questions – marketing automation could be the answer you’re looking for. 

Want to find out more? Chat to us about Dynamics 365 Marketing. Packed with tons of new features and capabilities, it’s the leading tool for driving effective, streamlined marketing campaigns in any industry. 

8 key benefits of marketing automation 

In a nutshell, marketing automation refers to all the digital tools that help marketers reach customers more efficiently, effectively and scalably. But what are the real differences between business that use marketing automation and those that don’t? We broke it down.

1. Lower staff costs

Marketing automation means fewer people can effectively do the work of more. How? By helping marketers to be more efficient. The reason: with marketing automation software, almost no time is spent on repetitive “busy work” such as manually creating emails or responding to certain triggers. Imagine a world in which one employee has the same output and effectiveness as a team of 25.

2. Faster, more effective targeting across multiple channels

One of the most powerful benefits that marketing automation offers marketers is the ability to reach customers in a personalised way – both online and offline – at scale.

Whether via phone, text, push notification, email and more, marketing automation makes it easy to deliver targeted messages to your customers at the right time, with zero hassle.

Without marketing automation, running targeted, multi-channel campaigns at scale is almost impossible.

3. Continual A/B campaign testing

There’s only so much time in a day. That’s why, traditionally, marketers test assets such as emails and landing pages only a handful of times before deploying them – and then leave it at that.

Marketing automation tools change everything. Suddenly, you can easily run ongoing A/B tests. That means constant feedback on performance and the ability to constantly iterate, change, and tweak, for optimal performance.

4. Accurate reporting end to end

When using fragmented tools and platforms, reporting on marketing campaigns’ effectiveness can be time consuming and error-prone.

With marketing automation software, everything is simplified – summarised in a single place, no matter the channel. Suddenly, insights are available at a snap of the fingers.

Better yet, marketing automation platforms provide a bird’s-eye view of the entire marketing process.  That helps reveal areas of drop off and complication easily, so you can fix problem spots quickly.

5. Intelligent segmentation and a 360-degree view

Do you know who your customers are? Do you fully understand their wants, needs and desires?

The best marketing automation tools use clever analytics and AI to break down your customers more granularly than would ever be possible otherwise. No matter how many customers you have, you can understand each of them individually, to provide them with the most effective, tailored messaging possible.

6. Better data management

When your business has thousands or tens of thousands of leads, keeping track of engagements can be a daunting task. Marketing automation simplifies and streamlines the process, so that no interaction data is ever wasted, lost, or unaccounted for.

7. Scalable processes and a platform for growth

As your company expands, your marketing activities need to keep pace. Manual processes are difficult to scale. But automated processes scale instantly to fit as many customers and leads as they need to.

8. Better lead nurturing

Sales take time and leads need nurturing. With marketing automation software, you can track campaigns’ effectiveness and respond to your prospective customers’ needs effectively at every stage of the buying journey.

In short, marketing automation makes marketing more effective, more reactive, more proactive, more scalable and more personalised. It frees up marketers’ time, so they can focus more on creative, ambitious ways of moving business forward. Finally, it primes companies for growth, as scaling is instant and automatic. No lags and no delays.

All this and more is possible with Dynamics 365 Marketing. Want to learn more?
Chat to us today to learn how to put these new features to work in your business.